Defining white Finnish privilege #12: Case Tom Packalén

Just like his colleague Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, MP Tom Packalén is another good example of white Finnish privilege. His example is in the same questionable league as National Coalition Party MP Pia Kauma, who falsely accused migrant mothers of buying new baby carriages with social aid while Finnish mothers buy used ones.

If you are a white Finn, an MP of an anti-immigration party like the PS and a former policeman, you have in Finland a lot of clout to say almost anything you want about migrants and minorities and put them in harm’s way, even if what you say is outright sinister because it promotes hatred and suspicion of other groups.

Packalén debated today with Marian Abdulkarim on Helsinki Radio. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen somebody in this country ask the right questions. The PS MP was on the defensive with Abdulkarim because he was forced to stay on the topic.

Some of the things that white Finnish privilege permits you to say is a ludicrous statement like ‘we’re not allowed to debate this topic,’ which Packalén has been doing all along as well as a long list of other anti-immigration politicians.

Here’s what Packalén wrote on his blog on Uusi Suomi : He claimed that a youth gang made up of only migrants is terrorizing East Helsinki and that one of its members said that their motive for hurting white Finns is racist.

The police has denied what Packalén claimed and have assured residents that there is no crime wave in East Helsinki.

Another ludicrous statement by the PS MP is that these youth gang member are the “ripening fruits” of our failed immigration and integration policy.

If Packalén had his way, he’d change our “failed” immigration and integration policy in such a way that it would be harder for asylum seekers and non-Europeans to come to Finland. Why? Because the PS and Packalén loath cultural diversity. They want to keep Finland white.

Packalén, like too many members of his party, aren’t only blinded by their white nationalism but by their ignorance about immigration.

Their claim that immigration and integration policy have failed is a myth they like to spread like most of the things they say and claim.

This comment on Packalén’s Facebook wall gives an idea of how the PS MP has invigorated and fueled racist comments. This one by Carl Bauer, who compares blacks, which he calls the n-word, to half-monkeys hang on trees with their genitals. No racism in Finland? Think twice. And while you think about this type of blatant racism, ask why a PS MP allows it to happen on his Facebook page. Thank you Sakari Timonen for the heads-up.

Certainly there are many things that could be improved in our immigration and integration policy, but not in the way that the PS wants.

If Abdulkarim gave Packalén a lesson on what racism is, I would tell him about Finnish emigration between 1860 and 1999, when over 1.2 million Finns left this country.

The Finns that moved to other countries founded associations, newspapers and were proud of their Finnish background and roots. In Argentina, where I have studied Finnish colonization for many years, the Finns founded a colony in the middle of the subtropical jungle in order to live amongst themselves.

Packalén can refresh his memory as well about section 17 of our Constitution, which gives us rights to our language and culture.

Definition #12

White Finnish privilege means in the case of PS MP Packalén that I can make up stories about migrants and put them in harm’s way.

Even if tabloids are writing sensationalist stories about youth gangs, spread fear and even get neo-Nazis to patrol streets, I’m not accountable for what I said.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

About colonization, how much argentina paid for finns? I mean per month. Also what kind of housing, roads, sewers, water etc. argentina provided?
What kind of security argentina gave?
Or was it so that finns build it all?

“Here’s what Packalén wrote on his blog on Uusi Suomi : He claimed that a youth gang made up of only migrants is terrorizing East Helsinki and that one of its members said that their motive for hurting white Finns is racist.”

If I understood right, all this is based on internal police/social worker mailing that got leaked, which finally made these cases public.

“Another ludicrous statement by the PS MP is that these youth gang member are the “ripening fruits” of our failed immigration and integration policy”

He was correct, all the things he mentioned: immigrant gangers, members of terrorist organization and financers of terrorist organization are here because of the immigration policy. They are the bad apples immigration policy have brought here. Do not even try to deny it. It does not mean all immigrants are like that, it however means immigration will bring these things here. It is a fact that needs to be taken into account when determining finnish immigration policy.